We received yet another
inspiring story from one our sustaining members. Enjoy!

"A few years
ago, my sister came out as gay. Amazingly, my entire family rallied
around her with love and support and total acceptance, unlike the
rest of our church community.

She, and her
now wife, are vegetarian as is our Mom. We have a large family, with
many family get-togethers, and dinners. It became pretty common for
us meat-eaters to mock the “veggies-eaters” in kindly meant, yet
harmful way.

My mother,
whose loving heart aches for all of God’s creation, decided at one
point that becoming vegan was the next important step, so that she
would no longer contribute to the suffering of dairy cows and
egg-laying chickens. I once again rolled my eyes at this, joined the
others in poking fun, and put it from my mind.

A few weeks
later, while speaking to my Mom on the phone, I asked how the “vegan
thing” was going. She seemed disappointed, and said something about
it being hard, and she had sort of given up. It stuck me harder than
a blow to the face. I was so proud of how our family had come
together to support our long-suffering sister, and yet we all
continued to mock her, and my mom’s efforts to be vegetarian/vegan.

I realized that
in her efforts to be vegan, my mother felt totally alone. I was
ashamed. I decided then to join her in her effort and become vegan
myself. I bought books, researched the Internet, and tried new
recipes, all in an attempt to give my Mom the support she needed.

In the process,
I began to open my eyes to the cruelty all around me. Now I am a
vegetarian because I believe it is the right thing to be. I could
never go back to eating meat, and I have joined those who are teased
instead of those who do the teasing in our family…and I like it much
better over here." ~ Cara